Another message in a bottle mystery is upon us!

Today’s message in a bottle mystery comes from Connecticut. A young woman named Amanda “mailed” this message in a bottle on the Quinnipiac River in Connecticut back in April of 2007:

Hey person who finds this, my name is Amanda! I’m helping my best friend ever Shantel babysit her kid sister and brother. We bought a six pack of root beer + decided to write notes and put them in the bottles. This bottle started out in Southington, CT. Tell me where it ends up!

Apparently, QRWA volunteers have hauled “old tires, crumpled beer cans, shopping carts and construction debris from the river,” but not messages in bottles. Of course, I find this kind of trash washed up in the Caribbean, too. It is amazing how much garbage people dump in waterways.

And yet, this message in a bottle feels special–not at all like garbage, as pointed out by president of the QWRA, David James: “To a lot of people, (the river) is an avenue or medium that takes things away. It’s a trash disposal,” James said. “For this person, it was a means of reaching out.”

Where is Amanda?

Well, Amanda reached out all those years ago. One spring night in 2007, she sent a message in a bottle in hopes of connecting with someone somewhere. But no one in the QWRA was able to find her because the phone number didn’t work. And, as you can see by trying her MySpace address, her profile is no longer in existence.

So, where is Amanda? This is the question we have to solve in this message in a bottle mystery… Let’s find her, y’all, and let her know that her message in a bottle has been found!

Map of Quinnipiac River. Credit: Wikipedia.

As a sidenote, I have certain fondness for messages in bottles that began their journeys in rivers, since I found one that turned out to be very meaningful to me. In fact, it started out in the Delaware river, but made it all the way down to the Caribbean! Click here for that story. Oh–and there’s another super cool story about a message in a bottle found in a river, and it was 97 years old! Click here for that one.

1915 Message in a Bottle Found After 97 Years

Imagine diving into the murky depths of the St. Clair River that separates Michigan from Canada, and spotting an antique bottle stuck in the mud–with a handwritten note inside. A message in a bottle! I think I would have a heart attack on the spot! But Dave Leander did it in 2012 and lived to tell the tale. He is an avid diver and owner of Great Lakes Divecenter in Shelby Township, north of Detroit. Dave had the incredible good luck to discover this 1915 message in a bottle during one fateful dive…

When he emerged from the St. Clair river with the bottle he found in the mud, he realized it was a 97-year-old note in a bottle.

Written by Tillie Esper and Selina Pramstaller of Detroit, the 1915 message in a bottle is lovely and simple and joyful:

Having a good time at Tashmoo

Selina Pramstaller

377 Wabash Avenue

Detroit, Michigan

Tillie Esper

141 Maybury Grand Avenue

Detroit, Michigan

June 30, 1915

Spending a leisurely day at the Tashmoo Amusement Park would have seemed like a simple joy at the time, though World War I was underway in Europe, and it wouldn’t be all that long before America joined. In a way, this message in a bottle captures some of the last peaceful moments for America in the 20th century.

(By the way, in 1989, a Detroit boy sent a message in a bottle just across Lake St. Clair from Tillie and Selina’s bottle, and someone found it 28 years later. Click here for that story)

The Search for the Senders’ Families

Dave Leander and his wife Pam embarked on a detective mission to figure out who these women were, and whether they had any living family. Incredibly, they very quickly found dozens of living family members–grand children, great grand nephews and nieces, and so on.

Eric Schiebold and Janet Baccanari, grandchildren of Tillie Esper, provided this photo of their grandmother:

Tillie Esper. Phot: Eric Schiebold / Janet Baccanari

Then, Dennis Pramstaller, great grandnephew of Selina Pramstaller, provided this photo of Selina’s family from 1916:

Selina and Tillie seem to have been spending a fun day together at Tashmoo amusement park, and probably threw their message in a bottle over board from the popular cruising ship, the Tashmoo.

After this amazing message in a bottle was found, USA Today reported that dozens of the descendants of Tillie and Selina were planning on getting together for Tashmoo Days in 2013, and that’s exactly what happened–even Tillie’s 88 year old daughter, Patricia Esper Leone, and Selina’s 85 year old nephew, William Morrisrow attended and were reunited with the message in a bottle! The gathering was documented on the Tashmoo Days Facebook page.

Tillie’s 88 year old daughter, Patrica, is in the middle-left wearing pink; Selina’s nephew is in the middle-right, wearing red with blue stripes. At right is Pam Leander, wife of Dave Leander who found the message in a bottle. Photo: Tashmoo Days Facebook Page.

The survival of this 1915 message in a bottle is a near miracle, if you ask me. But on top of that, it gives us a glimpse into a very different time–a quieter, slower, arguably happier time. And on top of that, Tillie Esper’s daughter got to receive one last note from her mother who had been gone a long time–if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is!

Message in a Bottle Answered Decades Later

If your message in a bottle is answered at all, you are extremely lucky. But to have your message in a bottle answered after 28 years? That is just crazy good luck!

John and Diane Worrell. Photo: John Worrell.

John and Diane Worrell have picked up countless plastic bottles from their lakeside home in Ontario over the years–but they knew they had found something special when one turned up with paper inside it.

According to the Detroit Free Press, that paper turned out to be a message written by a 12 year old boy. When? They couldn’t tell–it wasn’t dated. And when they tried to call the phone number on the message, it was disconnected.

William’s message in a bottle. Photo: John Worrell.

Message in a Bottle Answered After Search for Sender

That’s when they decided to ask Allie Gross at the Detroit Free Press for help. Bless her heart, she is one of the rare journalists who seem to understand the deep impact that messages in bottles can have on lives–an impact unique to messages in bottles.

Well, Allie found William Shuford, the author of the note. Hurray!

John and Diane Worrell had been excited about brightening the day of a kid when they told him of their find. William was 12 when he sent his note with his father, and John and Diane figured he was maybe 14 or 15 today. In fact, William is now 40, making his message in a bottle 28 years old. He sent it most likely in 1989.

William Shuford. Photo: William Shuford.

William was extremely surprised to have his message in a bottle answered, according to Detroit Free Press. It seemed to bring him right back to a different world and a different time–a time when he was growing up in Detroit, living with his two sisters and his single father, learning from him, a time when, as he told the CBC, “My dad was everyone’s dad in the neighbourhood because there weren’t enough dads to go around.”

The message in a bottle, it turned out, was born of a tradition he had with his father. Each year, on New Year’s Eve, they would visit the water at Belle Isle. According to the CBC, “When Shuford went off to college, he would get a call from his dad every New Year’s Eve. Dad was heading down to the water, where he would stare out and say a few prayers as another year began.”

Of course William grew up and carried on with his life. Today, he works as a head-hunter and AirBnB host in the San Francisco Bay area. Sadly his father passed away in 2014. Although he never got to hear of the note’s discovery, he left quite a legacy. My favorite detail from the CBC story is that William remembers seeing his dad braiding his daughters’ hair in the morning. I don’t know a lot, but I know this: as silly as it sounds, the world would be a better place if more daddies were willing and able to braid their daughters’ hair. It seems like an insignificant detail–just a daily chore. But it reveals a sweetness of heart, a simple goodness that this world could use a lot more of, don’t you think?

There are even workshops for dads happening nowadays based on exactly this idea, like this one and this one. Isn’t this the loveliest thing that ever happened? And William’s dad was way ahead of his time on this point. Well done, I say!

William and his dad looking sharp together! Photo: William Shuford.

A Message in a Bottle Connection

Every message in a bottle answered is an opportunity, a window suddenly opened between lives.

William has now spoken with John and Diane, and, in the magic way of message in a bottles, a new friendship has been formed–a friendship that never would have been possible in any other way. If you ask me, that makes the world a measurably better place.

*There was another message in a bottle answered in the same region after 97 years. Click here for that story.

A Stately Time Capsule

Sometimes, a message in a bottle story appears, and no one seems to notice it, and it fades into history. It boggles my mind, but this 84 year old message in a bottle has attracted practically no attention. And it’s not just a message in a bottle–it’s a time capsule!

Personally, I find land-based messages in bottles super interesting! Like–why not just use a box or something, since the time capsule doesn’t have to float? Maybe they were preparing for mega floods? What inspired these people to seal messages in bottles and hide them decades ago?

Cruise Ship Message in a Bottle Found

On May 30th, 2007, a couple from Little Rock, Arkansas were on a cruise when they decided to send a message in a bottle. Their message was sweet and simple. A few years later, my mom found this message in a bottle while she was beachcombing with my dad. We all marveled at the note and loved it for its good-spirited message:

1982 Message in a Bottle Found on Dry Land

Anyone who has ever renovated an old house knows it involves a bit of archaeology. Who installed this ceiling fan? Why are the walls insulated but not the ceiling? What lunatic placed a light switch inside the shower? Old houses are a grab-bag of choices made by previous owners, some perplexing, others delightful.

Clarke Elsby knows this well–he directs a team of technicians for Richardson & Starling contractors in Dumfries, Scotland.